by Kristi Cook
Matthew glanced up at the inky sky. “Maybe it has something to do with night falling, then,” he speculated. “Maybe you’re fine during the day, but as soon as the sun goes down, something happens inside you? Like … Jekyll and Hyde.”
I shivered violently, suddenly cold. My hands were like ice, my cheeks numb.
“She’s freezing,” Matthew said, shaking his head. “We’ve got to get her inside.”
“M-Matthew,” I stuttered, my teeth chattering now. “C-can you call a c-cab or something? I’ve got to check on Whitney.”
“Whitney?” Aidan asked. “Your friend in Atlanta?”
“She was here,” Matthew explained. “She’s the one you attacked.”
“I … what?” He raked a hand through his hair. “Please tell me that I didn’t hurt her, that I didn’t—”
“You didn’t,” I said, shaking my head. “She’s fine.”
Matthew nodded. “She was luckier than that woman they found in the woods at Winterhaven.”
Aidan’s gaze snapped up at once. “You think that I … that I’m responsible for that woman’s death? That I’m the Stalker?”
“After seeing you tonight, Aidan, what else can I think? If Violet hadn’t been here, if she hadn’t managed to get through to you …” He shook his head. “Christ, I don’t even want to think about it.”
A shudder worked its way down my spine. Oh my God. Aidan had killed that woman. I clapped one hand over my mouth, afraid I might vomit.
“We’ve got to get her out of the cold.” Matthew wrapped his arms around my shoulders. He was warm, so warm. I leaned into him, my legs suddenly weak, my twisted ankle throbbing.
“I’ll go get a cab,” Aidan said, his voice flat and lifeless. “I’ll take Violet with me.”
Matthew tightened his grip on me. “Oh, no, you won’t.”
“It’s the fastest way,” Aidan argued, “and she’s clearly in no shape to walk.”
“There’s no way I’m leaving her alone with you.” His tone was firm, resolute. “Go, hail us a cab. We’ll meet you by the street.”
I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. When I opened them, Aidan was gone.
“You okay to walk?” Matthew released me, leaning down to retrieve my stake.
“I … yeah, I think so.” But as soon as I took a few steps, my ankle buckled. I winced, crying out in pain.
“You’re not okay,” he said, stepping in front of me and bending down. “Go on, hop on my back.”
I shook my head. “You’re crazy. You can’t carry me out of here like that.”
“Of course I can. Now hop on.”
With a groan, I followed his command. He straightened, hiking me up higher on his back, and then set off. I wrapped my arms around his neck, laying my cheek flat on his back, absorbing his heat.
We continued on in silence, past the tunnel, back down the winding walk that led to the park’s edge. I could hear the sounds of traffic now, a siren blaring in the distance, a horn honking.
When we reached the street, Aidan was there, standing beside a yellow cab. “I gave him a hundred to wait,” he called out, meeting us on the walk, “so there’s no rush.”
Matthew stopped, bending his knees so I could slide down. I bit my lip, trying not to cry out in pain as my right foot made contact with the ground.
“Aidan? Master Gray? Oh, thank God, I’m not too late.”
We all turned in unison to see Trevors move out of the darkness toward us.
“Trevors?” Aidan took a step toward him. “What are you doing here?”
Trevors looked from Aidan to me, and back to Aidan again. “Has anyone been harmed?”
“No, we’re fine,” I said. “Well, except my ankle.”
“What’s going on?” Aidan asked.
Trevors swallowed hard, indecision written all over his face.
“C’mon, Trevors,” Aidan pressed. “You’ve got to tell me why you’re here.”
“Perhaps later,” he hedged. “In private.”
“No, now. You can speak freely in front of them.” He tipped his head in our direction.
The elderly man nodded. “Very well. You came by the town house today and told me that you planned to go to Miss McKenna’s apartment this evening. But when you set out, I could see that you … well, that you were slipping away from yourself. I’ve seen it before; I know the signs. Normally I don’t interfere, but in this case it seemed prudent.”
He nodded in my direction before continuing. “So I called her and warned her, just to be safe. I’ve been trying to track you ever since, afraid I was too late.”
“What do you mean, you’ve seen it before?” Aidan asked.
Trevors shook his head. “You, in some sort of altered state. It’s as if you don’t see me, don’t see anyone except perhaps your prey.”
Aidan visibly flinched. “My prey?”
“They’re not my concern—you are,” Trevors said with a shrug. “And when you come home, disheveled and disoriented, it’s not my place to ask where you’ve been or what you’ve been doing. It’s my job to clean you up, to see to your care and comfort, that’s all.”
“What the hell?” Matthew shook his head. “Are you saying that you’ve known all along that he was the Stalker, and you’ve been covering for him?”
Trevors shot him a glare. “I had suspicions, nothing more. No proof. All I knew for certain was that if he was the one they were calling the Stalker, he had no idea, no memories of the attacks. I had to protect him.”
Holy hell. This was a nightmare—an un-freaking-believable nightmare—and it just kept getting worse.
Aidan turned toward Matthew, his face seemingly blank now. “Can you see her safely home? Her stepmother’s out of town. You should stay with her tonight and make sure she and Whitney are okay.”
“What? No,” I protested. “Aren’t you coming with us?”
He shook his head, his eyes full of such sadness that I could barely stand to look at them. “I’m going back to Winterhaven. To Mrs. Girard. I’m turning myself in to the Tribunal, Violet.”
“No,” I cried, reaching for his arm. “Just … come home with me. You need to see Whitney, to see that she’s okay. And then … I don’t know, maybe we can figure out why this happened. It’s not your fault; you didn’t mean to hurt anyone. You can’t just turn yourself over to them.” Bile rose in my throat at the thought of what the Tribunal would do to him. “Not now, not till we can explain what happened and why.”
And there would have to be an explanation.
I took a deep, ragged breath. And then I remembered the vision I’d had—the one in the lab, the one that hadn’t made any sense to me. It had been so brief, just a quick series of images. I’d thought I’d seen Aidan using a dropper to take something from a vial and drop it into a test tube. It had been just a flash, my vantage showing me nothing more than a pair of hands and what they held.
I hadn’t really thought about it much, mostly because it had seemed so harmless at the time. I’d even considered the possibility that it hadn’t been a vision—that I’d simply breached Aidan’s mind and seen him working in the lab.
But now … now I realized there was another possibility. Maybe someone had tampered with his work, and I’d seen it happen. But who? It had to be someone who had access to the labs, someone who understood the science behind the work, and who had the means to effect whatever disastrous outcome they’d planned.
I looked over at Matthew—my protector. Could he possibly have done something so terrible, so cruel? Or Jack? Jack had changed this year, seemingly pulling away from all of us. Was he somehow capable of something like this? And then there was Tyler. Tyler, who didn’t much like Aidan, who always wanted to win. The Stalker’s attacks had only begun after Tyler’s arrival at Winterhaven. A coincidence?
“Violet?” Aidan said, drawing me from my thoughts. He reached for my face, cradling it with both his hands. “Look at me. I am so very sorry. For everything. For breaking my promise, for hurting you,
for hurting your friend. I love you; I’ll always love you. Just remember that, okay? But I have to do this; I have to turn myself over to them. I always said I was a monster, didn’t I? Now you have proof.” His voice broke, and I looked away.
I couldn’t bear it, couldn’t stand to look at him while he told me good-bye. Because that’s what this was—a good-bye. God only knew what they were going to do him. According to Trevors, he’d gotten twenty years of confinement just for destroying a murderous vampire. This was so much worse—innocent people hurt, a woman killed, their rules flouted. He’d risked exposing the very existence of vampires, even if he hadn’t known he was doing any of it.
Whatever the penalty was, it would be harsh. I wouldn’t see him again, not in this lifetime.
“Don’t, Aidan,” I pleaded, reaching up to grip his wrists. “Please, you can’t do this.”
“I have to, don’t you see? How can I look at you, touch you, without remembering what I’ve done? You deserve better. Remember, you’re a Sâbbat. Find your Megvéd. You’re meant to be with him, not me.”
With a start, I turned toward Matthew. He was leaning against the cab now, watching us intently.
Aidan’s gaze followed mine. A split second later I saw a flicker of understanding in his eyes. “Ah, I see you’ve found him already.”
I felt it then—his pain. Exquisite pain, radiating from inside him in rippling waves of utter devastation and hopelessness. With a gasp, I blocked my mind, unable to bear it.
When he raised his gaze to meet mine, his eyes were shuttered, his expression wiped clean. “It’s okay, love. You need to go. Whitney’s all alone, and you’ve got a lot to explain to her.”
I nodded, choking back a sob.
He glanced back at Matthew, his expression grave. “Dr. Byrne?” he said, taking a step away from the curb. Away from me. “Take care of her, okay?”
Matthew nodded. “Of course.”
Aidan turned back toward me. He raised a hand to his lips and kissed his fingers, then pressed them against my chest. I’ll always be yours, came his voice in my head. Heart and soul.
And then he simply turned and walked away, falling into step beside Trevors.
Matthew reached for me, steadying me. Wordlessly, he helped me into the cab. As soon as the door shut, he called out my address to the cabbie. I had no idea how he knew it; I didn’t care.
The car lurched forward, and I twisted in the seat, looking out the rear window, hoping for one last glimpse of Aidan—just one.
But he and Trevors had vanished, swallowed up into the night.
“It’ll be okay, Violet,” Matthew murmured beside me. “It has to be this way; deep in your heart, you know it. There’s no other way.”
Oh, but there is.
Straightening my spine, I turned to face forward, my jaw set with determination. There was another way, and I was going to find it. If they thought I was going to sit by idly and let them take Aidan, let them torture him or whatever else the Tribunal did to their prisoners, they were wrong. Dead wrong.
I wasn’t sure what my next move was, but I knew I needed to find Mrs. Girard, and fast. I needed to talk to her. If she wasn’t still at Winterhaven, Cece could help me track her down. In the meantime, I’d get Matthew to help me replay the vision that I believed showed the sabotage. There must be some small clue that I’d missed, not realizing its importance. Some identifying mark on the hands I’d seen, maybe. A blemish. A watch. Something.
I glanced up, the city lights reduced to a colorful blur outside the cab’s window. My resolve strengthened with every block, my certainty increasing.
Mrs. Girard would listen to me. After all, Aidan was her greatest creation, her crown jewel. She needed him for something, and whatever it was, it was important to her. She didn’t realize that I knew about his royal lineage or that I’d told Aidan about it. I would use that to my advantage, somehow.
And Aidan, well … at some point he’d have to forgive himself. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but maybe proof that someone had sabotaged his work would make it more so.
At least, I hoped it would.
“Right over here, at the end of the block,” Matthew called out. As the cab slid in front of Patsy’s building, he gently touched my hand. “Hey, you okay?”
I took a deep breath, and then looked him in the eye, my Megvéd. “I’m going to be,” I said with a nod. We were all going to be okay—even Aidan. I would make sure of it.
Because despite it all, I still loved him. I knew him, recognized the kindred heart that beat inside his immortal body, desperate to be set free.
I was going to set him free.
There was at least one part of the Sâbbat/vampire legend that was correct: He was meant for me, and I for him.
Just not quite the way it was intended.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’m always amazed when I realize how many people play a role in turning an idea into a real, actual book. What seems at first glance a solitary effort is really a collaboration, and I have so many people to thank.
First, my wonderful critique partners and beta readers. Carey Corp, I couldn’t have done this one without you! Your notes, ideas, and brainstorming sessions—all priceless. Thank you! An equally enthusiastic thank-you to Cindy Thomas and Amalie Howard. I owe you all some serious chocolate!
Thanks also to my supersupportive writer peeps—the ones who listen to me whine and help keep me sane on a daily basis: Ann Christopher, Lori Devoti, Laura Drewry, Caroline Linden, Sally MacKenzie, and Eve Silver. You all are the bestest.
As always, a giant thank-you to my amazing agent, Marcy Posner, and equally fab editor, Jennifer Klonsky. I’m so lucky to work with the awesome team at Simon Pulse—Michael Strother, Lydia Finn, Carolyn Swerdloff, Dawn Ryan, and so many others. Cupcakes one day. I promise.
Thank you to the readers and bloggers who embraced Haven and who dedicate so much time and effort to the YA community. Special thanks to the lovely ladies at Good Choice Reading: Damaris, Wanda, and Maria. You rock!
And last, a huge, sloppy thank-you to my wonderful family—Dan, Vivian, and Eleanor. Love you guys!
We hope you enjoyed reading this eBook.
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Table of Contents
1 There’s No Place like Home
2 England and Scotland and France, Oh My!
3 Love Bites
4 … And Vampires Suck
5 Tick, Tock
6 The Wolf’s Tale
7 You Lie like a Rug
8 This Kiss
9 To the Manor Born
10 Inked
11 Shattered
12 Blast from the Past
13 Timeless
14 Oh, No, You Didn’t
15 Strange Bedfellows
16 Tea for Three
17 Under Where?
18 Four out of Five Dentists Surveyed …
19 Lockdown
20 The Scooby Gang
21 Friendship 101
22 You Gotta Have Faith
23 Dogfight
24 What, No Tacos?
25 Dude …
26 Angels and Demons
27 A Nip Here, a Tuck There
28 The Gloaming
29 Broken
30 … Beyond Repair
Acknowledgments
